Bibliography ♯9: From chess to StarCraft

PÉREZ-LATORRE, Ó., 2012. From chess to StarCraft. A comparative analysis of traditional games and videogames. Comunicar, 19(38), pp.121-27.

In this analysis between the traditional games and videogames, the author try to verify the essay of Marshall McLuhan in where he explain that a game (or videogame) must be analyzed as models of representation of essential life and culture’s aspects of the time they were developed. For this inquiry the author compare traditional games with contemporary videogames similar in genre to extract the meaning differences between them an associate this differences with cultural concerns and dilemmas of present times. As result of this dissection the author concludes that the thesis of Marshall McLuan go into effect and highlight the neglected narrative capacity of videogames to tell us facts about our world and our connections with it.

Taking in to account that videogames have to transmit actual world issues and obstacles may be important in the process of developing the background of a videogame. It would give them more depth and meaning, making them more interesting and reflexive. What I miss in the article is that the author doesn’t take more recent videogame examples, giving a sensation of out-dated information.